I Suppose He's Not All Bad
by Mimosa In The Morning
Summary: Draco Malfoy is notorious for being cold and detached, but is he really all that emotionless? No, I don't suppose he is... This is a oneshot of pure, unedited fluff that I wrote today because REASONS. Includes Draco/Astoria Scorose and Romione (if you blink, you miss)


A/N: heyyyy! So I wrote this entire thing today because plot bunnies and boredom so I haven't actually proofread it at all so... Read at your own risk! The memories are supposed to be in italics but for some reason they're not working right now so whatever just imagine lol

Disclaimer: once again, I don't own Harry Potter or anything else recognizable. I do however own this story so please do not try to pass it off as your own as that is lazy and you're better than that.

-2032-

Draco Malfoy was- for lack of a better word- made of stone. Just like his father before him and so on and so forth. It was a Malfoy trait. Don't ever show anyone what you're feeling, don't let anyone in- and Draco had always obeyed that. . . Until Astoria, of course.

Astoria Greengrass was the first person he'd ever really opened up to. . . He remembered the day he first met her, only three years after the war ended.

-2001-

Although he'd always hated ministry functions, Draco once again found himself seated at a table surrounded by his foolish coworkers, celebrating something he couldn't remember and listening to them laugh about 'that crazy Vogel, always tripping over her own robes.' Needless to say, he was bored out of his mind.

"Pardon me," he cut in the interim between the laughter and the next dumb joke. "I think I'll go and find where Audrey has headed off to."

The table waved him off cheerily and continued their boring drivel. Of course, Draco was lying. Not only was he not leaving in search of Audrey Wescott (whom he knew for a fact was off in a darkened corner snogging Percy Weasley and pretending like their relationship was some big secret), but he also had no intention of returning. Instead, he retired to the balcony just outside of the ballroom. He hated the word retired. . . It made him feel so much older than his twenty years.

There weren't very many people outside at all, just an elderly couple coddling on a stone bench and two or three other people of little importance. Draco sighed and rubbed his hands over his tired face, was it normal for someone his age to be so tired at 10 in the evening?

"Long night?" Draco looked around for the voice and found a girl, a very short girl, standing next to him.

"Who are you?" He asked, not meaning to sound rude but realizing that he probably did anyway.

"Can't say I'm shocked that you don't remember me," she sighed. "We only ever spoke once, and it was because you wanted me to move so you could throw something at Harry Potter."

Draco thought back on all the times he'd done that, and he still could not connect a name to this face.

"But you did have a crush on my sister once, at least she thought you did. I wouldn't blame you if you had, she's very pretty. Strangely pretty actually, you wouldn't believe that there's no veela juice in their somewhere."

"I'm sorry," Draco shook his head, trying to catch up with her nonstop commentary. "Who's your sister?"

"Daphne. Daphne Greengrass."

Aha. Yes, Daphne had been in the same year as him in Hogwarts. Although he'd never had a crush on her, he did vaguely remember her having a sister.

"Oh, right. Hester?"

She laughed. "Astoria, actually, but at least you got three letters right."

Draco suddenly felt embarrassed for no reason. Odd. He made a note to tell his father about it and see what he thought.

"My apologies," he replied. "May I ask what you're doing here? Aren't you still in school?"

"I graduated last year actually," she smiled slightly and then looked ahead at the brilliant stars above. "I'm an intern in the Improper Use of Magic Office."

Now Draco felt very old indeed.

"Impressive," was all he could say.

Now he not only felt old, but also incredibly stupid.

"Oh it's nothing really. But you! You work in the Department of Mysteries, right? What's that like?"

"Technically, as an Unspeakable, I'm not really allowed to tell you anything."

"Well I suppose that's true," she sighed and hopped up onto the ledge.

"Be careful!" Draco almost shouted, but he quickly redeemed himself. "I mean, ahem, it's a long way down."

Astoria glanced over her shoulder into the chasm below and shrugged. "I suppose it is."

"Do you suppose everything?" He inquired.

"I suppose." The twinkle in her dark blue eyes was enough to send Draco reeling, but he managed to keep himself under control.

"What house were you in?" He asked. "Not Slytherin, although I daresay you would've been a shoe-in."

She laughed again, and Draco caught himself almost smiling at the way her head tilted back and her brown hair slid off of her bare shoulders. He shivered, when did it get so cold?

"Hardly. Slytherin is definitely my sister's turf. I, however, was a Hufflepuff."

If he'd been drinking anything, Draco would have taken this opportunity to spit-take his surprise. Instead, he foolishly choked on his own saliva. Classy.

"Sweet Merlin!" Astoria gasped as she hopped off the railing to give his back a few rough pats to get him breathing again. "Are you alright?"

After he found his breath, Draco nodded. "Just caught me off guard is all," here he allowed himself a small smirk.

"You'd think I'd just told you Daria King was waiting for you in a room upstairs," she laughed again when his eyes went wide. "I'm kidding! Tough crowd."

Draco once again found himself scrambling to recover. "Of course she's not here. She's an international quidditch star, what would she be doing at a lame party like this?"

"The same thing we are, most likely."

"And what is it that we're doing?"

"Avoiding all the yuppies," she grinned. Draco couldn't hide a small smile of his own.

"I suppose you're right."

She didn't respond, instead she turned away toward the stairs leading to the garden. Draco almost hurt to see her leave. . . Beautiful, funny, willing to talk to him. . . She was quite possibly the most interesting girl he'd ever met. He watched her pale yellow dress drag behind her, letting his eyes trail up her form to wear the dress reached just below her shoulders and then dipped down to reveal her lower back. The clacking of her heels on the stonework echoed the thudding of his heart. Just as he was about to go back inside and try to forget about her, she turned around.

"Coming?"

-2032-

He'd asked her to marry him two months later.

That was quite along time ago now. . . Draco smiled as he glanced down at his now wife, sleeping with her head resting in his shoulder. He couldn't even imagine what his life would be like if he lost her, especially if he'd never gone out to the balcony that night. He shifted his weight just a little, intending to make her more comfortable on the stiff bench they were sharing, but instead it just woke her up.

"Hm?" She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What time is it? Is it over?"

"Shh. . ." Draco said as he smoothed her slightly bedraggled hair with a gentle hand. "Not quite yet. We haven't missed anything."

Astoria smiled at him sleepily. "Good," she looked around as she attempted to wake herself up a little more. "It's exactly the same."

Draco was used to his wife saying strange things, especially after she'd just woken up, but he was really drawing a blank on this one.

"What's exactly the same, dear?" He asked.

"This ward. Nothing's changed at all in the last, what's it been? Twenty-six years?"

Ah. Now he understood! And he, not for the first time that night, felt very old.

"Has it really been that long?" He said, not really asking as much as he was in awe of how short time felt.

"Afraid so," Astoria smiled. "Do you remember what it was like that night?"

"Remember? Darling, that night is one of my reoccurring nightmares."

"Oh hush!" She scolded, "that night was wonderful."

Draco laughed, careful not to wake anyone else trying to get some shut eye before sunrise, and recalled his last visit to the exact same ward.

-2006-

Draco was pacing the floor of the master suite in Malfoy Manor, muttering strings of unintelligible sentences interspersed with the occasional swear here or there.

"Will you stop that?" Astoria cried exasperatedly, "you're going to wear a hole in the carpet!"

Draco stopped his manic pacing for a moment to stare at his very pregnant wife sitting up in their bed, who was altogether far too calm for someone in labor.

"I can't stop! I'm panicking! This is what I do when I panic." He continued his pacing and Astoria groaned.

"So I've noticed."

"Are you sure you don't want to go to St. Mungo's now?" He stopped pacing to sit on the edge of the bed and grasp Astoria's delicate, pale hand in his own.

"I've told you a thousand times, Draco, these things take time. It will be at least another hour or two before I'm even close to needing to be at the hospital."

"Are you sure?"

"Call it motherly instincts, but I think I'll know when she wants out."

"She?" Draco raised a brow indignantly.

"What?" Astoria replied, trying her best to look affronted when, on the inside, she was celebrating the fact that she'd found a topic to keep his mind off of the imminent birth of their child.

"It's a boy, Tori. A Malfoy's first born is always a boy."

"I don't think so! It's definitely a girl."

"How do you figure?"

"Mother's instinct," she shrugged. "We know these things."

"Oh really? The other day you woke me up at three o'clock in the morning to tell me that your 'mother's instinct' was telling you we needed ice cream, so forgive me if I'm not completely trusting of it."

"We did need ice cream!" She started to laugh but broke off halfway through when she was hit with another contraction.

"They're getting closer," Draco said, starting up his pacing once more. Astoria sighed and let him continue for thirty more minutes before suggesting that they head over to St. Mungo's.

Draco was all too happy to oblige.

Once inside, it didn't take them long to get settled into a room. Draco's panicking was threatening to reach a crescendo and Astoria knew she had to find some way to stop it before he had a full blown panic attack or worse- fainted.

"Darling? Could you be a dear and come sit with me for just a moment?"

Draco complied and sat with her on the bed, even letting her take his hand to try and soothe him. . . Although his foot was still tapping restlessly on the tile.

"Draco, why are you getting so worked up? Everything's been going exactly according to plan except for your sudden outburst of hysteria."

Her husband sighed, seeming to calm down only slightly. "How are you so calm right now?" He said in total disbelief. "I've been on edge for the past three months, and here you are about to give birth like it's nothing."

"What's wrong?"

"It's just. . . We tried for so long to have a baby. After the first two miscarriages, I couldn't help but feel like maybe it wasn't meant to be for us. I felt like the biggest failure as a husband. I mean, my dad wasn't the greatest man, but at least he was able to do the one thing he was supposed to do."

"Draco-" she started to comfort him; he cut her off.

"And then, when we found out you were pregnant again, I was so happy. Ecstatic, in fact, which is not something I usually admit to being. But the farther along you got, the more I could actually see the evidence of our baby, I. . . I felt like this one was going to be taken from us too. Like maybe the gods were teasing me, letting me believe that, after two years of trying, we were finally going to get what we wanted. . . And then they would take it away from us. I've been so worried that this baby isn't going to make it."

Astoria didn't know what to say. She'd had no idea that her husband had been going through such pain everyday. She looked straight into his lovely grey eyes, the eyes she hoped their child would inherit, and noticed that he was doing everything he could to keep from crying.

"Darling. . ." She said quietly as she shed a few tears of her own. She was never very good at hiding her feelings like Draco, call it Hufflepuff sentimentality if you will. "Look."

He watched, cautiously, as she lifted their joined hands and placed them on her belly.

They both waited, silent enough to her a pin drop, until-

Bump!

"Do you feel that?" Astoria whispered. "That's our baby. He's alive and kicking and he's ready to meet you, but you need to believe in him, alright? Your worrying is going to make him worry. I should know, mother's instinct."

Draco smiled as he tried his best to swallow the lump in his throat, "you said he."

"Hmm?"

"He. You called the baby a boy."

"Oh, did I?" Astoria smiled back. "Completely by accident, I assure you. It's most definitely a girl."

"Sure it is," he pressed a kiss against her belly and then to her tear-salted lips. "Thank you."

"Anytime, love."

"I love you."

"I know."

"Hush," he kissed her again. And again. And again. He kissed her until they were broken apart by Healer Godfrey walking in and clearing her throat.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting something," she said with an impish smile. "I just wanted to see how everything was going in here?"

"Everything's perfect," Draco replied as he stood up, not releasing his wife's hand.

"I'm glad to hear that, do you mind if I just check to see how far along you are?"

"Go right ahead," Astoria smiled tiredly. "I'm just about done with this being pregnant thing."

Godfrey smiled knowingly before conducting a few stabilizing charms and concluding with, "congratulations, Malfoys, it looks like your little newcomer will be here sooner than we thought. You're already ten centimeters."

"How is that possible?" Astoria cried. "We just arrived twenty minutes ago!"

"No need to panic, it's very common for the first born to be a little bit ahead of schedule. I'll just call in the mediwitch and we'll get started shall we?"

After Healer Godfrey left to go get her helper, Astoria began hyperventilating.

"We're having a baby. Oh sweet Merlin, I didn't think this through! Do we have room for a baby? Did you get the bag that you're supposed to get? DID WE PACK A BAG?"

"Tori!" Draco rubbed her back soothingly and tried to calm her down. "Now you're panicking!"

Realizing, quite sheepishly, that he was right, Astoria forced herself to regulate her breathing. "I'm so sorry," she sighed. "I guess I'm a little freaked out too."

"It's alright, everything's going to be fine," he placed their hands back onto the spot where they'd felt the baby move before. "Now let's meet our baby."

Not even a full hour later, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy was secure in his father's arms as his mother twirled his wealth of pale blond hair around her finger.

"He's really here, isn't he?" She asked, still not believing that this little mewling creature had once been inside of her.

"In the flesh," Draco watched as his son wrapped his tiny hand around his finger and brought it to his tiny pink mouth.

"He's beautiful," she sighed, the adrenaline rush finally starting to wear off as she yawned.

"Yeah," Draco looked from his sleeping wife to his wonderful newborn son, "he is."

-2032-

"I guess it wasn't so bad after all," Draco conceded, looking back on what it felt like to hold his son for the first time.

"Indeed it wasn't," Astoria sniffed, although she couldn't pretend to be hurt for long when her husband pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Hey, get off my mum!" A familiar voice joked. Draco turned to see his son walking down the hallway toward them. Draco and Astoria stood up when they saw him, the same question written in both pairs of eyes. "Not yet," Scorpius answered. "I feel like we've been in their for twelve hours."

"Only six, dear." Astoria tried her best to encourage, but she too was on the edge with anticipation. "What are you doing out here anyways?"

"I just came out to update you on all the nothing that's been going on," he groaned and ran his hands over his face and through his hair, making him look almost as old as his father. "How's everything out here?"

"Oh just peachy," Draco smirked. "We've been passing the time with balloon animals."

Scorpius rolled his eyes, but he still smiled as he said, "really, dad."

"Just reminiscing, I suppose. You know, I remember the day you were born with perfect clarity."

"Really?"

"Of course- it was one of the best days of my life."

"Were you as nervous as I am?"

"Certainly not."

Astoria snorted with laughter and then fought to disguise it with her hand.

"Okay maybe a little-"

"He was an absolute wreck," Astoria answered. "It's a good thing I was able to talk some sense into him before he fainted or else he might not have been there to see you being born!"

Scorpius laughed, it was just too easy to picture his father passing out cold on the hospital floor like some damsel in one of those fairytale movies Rose loved so much.

Rose. . .

"Can I tell you something?" Scorpius said, suddenly becoming very serious.

"We're your parents, Scorp, you can tell us anything," Astoria assured him as Draco just stared at him, cool and focused and ready to hear whatever it was his son had to say.

"Well, it's just. . . I'm worried that I won't be a good father."

"What? Scorpius, why on earth would you think that?" Astoria held his hand tightly in her own.

"I don't know, it's just. . . What if I forget to feed it? Or I make its bath too hot or too cold? What if I drop it? What if-"

"Scorpius." The expectant father looked to his own father when he said his name in the voice that said 'Listen To Me And Don't Speak.' "You know very well that I am not the Weasley's biggest fan-"

"Draco, where is this going?" Astoria asked as she placed a hand on his forearm.

"Trust me, I have a point here."

"Whatever you say. . ." She gestured for him to continue.

"As I was saying, you know I'm not the biggest fan of the Weasley's-"

"I got that much."

"Can I make a point without being interrupted every five seconds?"

"Sorry," mother and son replied, equally abashed.

"Thank you. Anyways, all I was going to say is that I knew from the moment you brought Rose home to us that you were going to marry her."

"Really?"

Draco nodded, already beginning to recount his exact thoughts of the night he'd formally been introduced to Rose Weasley.

-2023-

"You're doing it again," Draco sighed, slipping off his glasses and setting his paper down on the end table, only for Astoria to pick it up and toss it in the rubbish bin.

"I don't know what you could possibly be referring to," she said dismissively, spelling the books on the shelves from alphabetical by title to alphabetical by author- the third time she'd changed it in the last hour.

"You're obsessively cleaning."

"So? I don't want her to think we're Neanderthals!"

Draco stood and grabbed his wife by the shoulders to still her, stopping her from using another pillow fluffing charm. "Tori, the house is spotless. You've done an excellent job, but the house elves are uncomfortable with you taking over their turf."

Sure enough, three house elves stood in the corner awkwardly, not sure what they should be doing now that their mistress was tidying up herself.

"Sorry, you're completely right, I'm sorry." Astoria shook her head and took a few deep calming breaths. "It's just that it's his first girlfriend that's he's actually bringing home to meet us! I just wish she was able to stay through the entire spring break."

"I don't know if I'd go that far, but I can tell you that even if our house was a complete wreck, this girl wouldn't care. She is a Weasley, after all."

"You are absolutely dreadful!" She exclaimed, slapping him away half joking and half serious.

"I'm just being realistic, dear."

"Why don't you stop being realistic and start helping me get ready? Chicken or fish? Or steak! Maybe pasta? Oh no! I didn't think to ask Scorpius if she was allergic to anything. . . What if she's a vegetarian? Or, Merlin forbid, a vegan?"

"Stop panicking, I've got this covered." He pushed his harried bride onto the couch and snapped his fingers to signal a house elf.

"Master is requesting Nibby?" The creature asked, bug eyes opened impossibly wide.

"Yes. Prepare chicken and roasted vegetables for our dinner tonight, along with potatoes of some sort. Keep it simple, but flavorful, and pair it with the white Côtes du Rhône; keep the Sauvignon Blanc on hand just in case."

"Is that being all, Master?"

"Yes, thank you, Nibby."

"Nibby will be starting right away, Master." With a snap of her fingers, Nibby was off preparing dinner.

"There, now that that's been cleared up. . ." Draco looked down at Astoria with a boyish gleam in his eye.

"Do you really think we have time?" She asked, sitting up slightly and adopting her own coy expression.

"The kids aren't due for at least another hour. . . That's more than enough time to. . ." He trailed off, choosing to let the atmosphere do the talking for him.

Astoria offered him her hand, but before he could help her up, she yanked him onto the couch with her.

"Kiss me, Mr. Malfoy," she smirked, slipping her hand behind his head and pulling him closer. Close enough to where she could feel his breath on her lips, the electricity sparking between them, but not close enough to actually be touching- she would leave that move to him.

"Don't mind if I do, Mrs. Malfoy," he waited a full ten more seconds before closing the short distance between them, melting into her just like the first time they'd kissed. They'd only been kissing for about thirty seconds when they heard someone in the hall outside of the sitting room.

"Mum? Dad?" Draco and Astoria pulled apart instantly.

"Dammit, why is he always so early?" Draco growled, standing up and pulling Astoria after him. "Didn't anyone ever teach him about arriving fashionably late?"

"Clean up your language! This girl may be our only chance for grandchildren!" Astoria smoothed out some nonexistent wrinkles in her cheery, Hufflepuff yellow sundress- the same color that had begun to grow on Draco the second he'd met her.

"The boy is seventeen. If this girl doesn't work out, there's still plenty of years left for him to find someone else."

"Mum?" Scorpius called again.

"We're in the sitting room, love!" Astoria called, pulling out her wand to perform one last pillow fluffing charm.

"Hullo!" Scorpius said when he walked in, immediately hugging Astoria and shaking Draco's hand (exactly what Draco had always told him to do in front of anyone but their immediate family).

"Scorpy!" Astoria couldn't help but gush. "I'm so glad you're home!"

Scorpius gave her a look that clearly said 'I Told You Not To Call Me That' before exchanging it for a smile and turning around to wave someone in through the door.

"Rose? Don't be shy," he chuckled. Draco watched with detached curiosity to see what this girl would look like. He half expected her to be as ugly as her father, but then he conceded that Granger was pretty enough to balance that out.

And about that, he was right.

The girl that trailed in, far too timidly for a Gryffindor, was neither short- like her mother- nor tall- like her oaf of a father- rather she was average. She was not fat, nor was she stick thin, but she looked healthy. Her pale skin was contrasted by seemingly millions of pale brown freckles, and her Weasley-red hair looked as if it was as unmanageable as Granger's. At least it would be; Draco was able to smell the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion she was wearing from a mile away. Draco was only slightly disappointed to see that she was actually quite pretty.

"Hullo," she said, almost shyly. "I'm Rose Weasley."

Astoria wasted no time in engulfing the ginger-haired girl in a hug so tight Draco thought she might burst.

"Astoria, please, you're suffocating her," he drawled, maintaining a cool, Malfoy indifference.

"Right, sorry!" Astoria took a sheepish step back. "I'm just so excited! You're the first girl Scorpius has ever brought home, you know."

"Muuum," Scorpius moaned, clearly mortified and begging her to stop. "Shall we not?"

"Yes. Yes. Certainly. You're right. Sorry." She took a deep breath, seamlessly slipping back into her gracious hostess personality. "Dinner will be ready in just a moment, why don't we all have a seat and catch up on Hogwarts?"

The unlikely group took their seats, Draco and Astoria in the high-backed chairs on one side of the room; Scorpius and Rose on the couch on the other side.

The silence was deafening as Draco waited for Astoria to speak and Astoria waited for Draco and Scorpius waited for either of them until-

"Your home is absolutely lovely," Rose said as she glanced around the sitting room.

Astoria beamed with pride- both at the compliment of her home and at the confidence of their guest.

"Thank you, dear, I'd be glad to give you the grand tour after dinner?"

"Yes I would love that!" The girl smiled, she seemed genuinely interested in spending two hours walking around a huge, empty house to hear stories about each unoccupied room and dusty piece of furniture. For a moment, Draco thought she might be insane. "It would be so interesting to see where little Scorpy grew up." She looked over at the blond as she said this with a wicked smirk.

"This is why I told you not to call me that in front of her! She's ruthless! She'll never let me live it down!" Scorpius cried.

Rose laughed so hard she was left clutching her sides as tears rolled down her cheeks. In between her gasps for breath and the torrid of giggles she managed to say "I'm. . .so sor- giggle -ry! I just -snort- can't help it!"

Soon, Scorpius was chuckling as well.

Astoria smiled approvingly, it had always been her biggest rule that you must marry someone who makes you laugh and vice versa. Draco looked on bemusedly, seeing what this girl had done for his son was certainly game changing. Just as he was about to give his two cents, Nibby popped into the room.

"Dinner is ready, Masters, all in the dining room," she bowed and popped right back out again.

As the four walked to the dining room, Rose seemed troubled about something.

"Are you alright, dear? You look as if you've just seen a Horntail!" Astoria questioned.

"Oh yes, everything's fine. . .Scorpius didn't tell me that you had house elves, is all."

Astoria looked as if she'd been slapped.

"Oh! Why, they're freed of course! We pay them and give them off days like any other employees, I'm sorry if we gave you the wrong impression. I assumed Scorpius would have told you, seeing as your mother is the head of the Department of Conservation of Magical Creatures," at this she sent her son a very pointed look that read 'How Dare You Make Me Look Bad In Front Of Your Girlfriend.' "I was actually a member of SPEW back in school. I doubt your mother remembers me, I was only a- what? Second year, maybe? Anyways, I never actually joined because my parents didn't approve, but I was a member at heart. Sometimes I even left socks and things lying about like I'd heard your mother did. I once told her what a good job she was doing. . .that may be the only time we've ever spoken to each other."

By the time Astoria had finished her spiel, they were already taking their seats at the dinner table.

"That's amazing, Mrs. Malfoy! My mum will be so pleased when I tell her!"

"Please, call me Astoria," she insisted. "Perhaps you and your parents would like to join us for dinner again some time before break ends?"

Draco blanched at the thought of an entire evening spent with Ronald Weasley, but he quickly covered it up with a cough.

"Well I'd have to ask them, but that sounds wonderful!" Rose smiled and her brown eyes sparkled, Draco couldn't help but compare how similar she was to his wife. They were both strong, confident, funny, lovely, and passionate. . .he wondered if Scorpius realized these similarities at all.

As they ate and talked, Draco kept careful mental notes about Rose, watching out for anything that might be cause for alarm- but what he found surprised him.

She would surreptitiously glance at Scorpius from time to time, failing to hide a smile each time. Her eyes practically glowed when he said something funny, and he could see her love for him pouring off in waves. Scorpius, however, was either used to it or oblivious. Either way, Draco wanted to speak with her privately before she left, just to smooth out some details.

The tour went extremely well. With every childhood story of Scorpius that was told- each more incriminating than the last- Rose laughed and then tried to apologize to Scorpius, who continued to feign embarrassment while still keeping his arm around her. Just before Rose was about to step through the floo, Draco requested her presence, alone, in the sitting room.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me, Mr. Malfoy?" She asked, nervously shifting from foot to foot.

"Yes," he replied, gracefully sitting down into the chair he'd occupied earlier and suggesting that Rose take a seat on the sofa. "I noticed something about you the moment you walked through that door, you know."

"Oh?" She waited for him to continue.

"You're obviously very in love with my son," because this was usually where he would be interrupted, Draco paused. When no such interruption presented itself, he continued, adding her respectfulness to the list of things he liked about her. "Is that correct? Or have I been grossly mistaken?"

"I mean. . .we've only just begun seeing each other, really. I don't know if love is really the appropriate word-" Draco felt the sudden urge to interrupt for himself, which was both highly uncommon and highly necessary.

"I knew I loved my wife the night I met her, and you look at Scorpius the same way I look at her."

Rose blushed, it was obvious against her pale skin and clashed horribly with her hair.

"I suppose you could say that I love him," she replied quietly. Draco turned his face away so that she couldn't see his grin- that was almost word for word the same way Astoria had told him 'I love you'. That was all he'd really wanted Rose to admit, however, so he had to think of something to tell her.

"Very well, then, I feel that you should know something very important about him though. . ."

Rose looked alarmed, automatically assuming the worst. "What is it?" She asked.

"Scorpius is a very nervous boy, as I'm sure you've probably already noticed, and I hope you are prepared to constantly be affirming him throughout your relationship. He's very self conscious and he doubts his skills often, are you sure you can handle someone who will need so much of you all the time?"

Rose stared at him with a smirk and eyes that burned with the thought of a challenge. She looked ready for anything.

"Mr. Malfoy, your son is a wonderful person and a remarkable wizard, I would be honored if he chose me to be the one he wants reaffirming him for the rest of his life. If, one day, he does, I will do everything in my power to make sure he knows how amazing he is everyday."

Draco was shocked. Her eyes bore into him like lasers, her eyebrow raised as if challenging him to doubt her sincerity, but he knew better than to question the motives of a Weasley. Instead, he stood and held out a hand for her to shake.

"My, my, Ms. Weasley," he smirked, his eyes never leaving hers for even a second. "I believe you'll fit in quite nicely around here."

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy."

"Please, call me Draco, you've earned it."

Rose just smiled.

-2032-

"I can't believe it!" Scorpius exclaimed when his father finished his retelling. "She told me you'd asked her where her father kept his secret stash of-" he stopped mid sentence. "Looking back on it now, I should probably have realized that was a lie."

"I didn't know you had it in you, dear," Astoria said, equally shocked. "I'd always thought you'd tried to scare her away."

"I'm not that much of a monster, am I?" Draco asked, leaving Scorpius and Astoria to shake their heads vehemently, almost like it was rehearsed. "Thought so."

"Mr. Malfoy?" Both Draco and Scorpius looked up to meet the eyes of the timid, obviously fresh out of training, mediwitch.

"Yes?" Scorpius replied.

"You might want to get in here. Your wife is screaming for you and your child is, well, let's just say it's done waiting around."

Scorpius paled far beyond his usual shade of porcelain, but he quickly remembered his father's story. Rose had promised that she would always be there for him, and he was ready to be there for her as she brought their child into the world.

"I'm coming!" He shouted, pausing only to kiss his mother's cheek and embrace his father, even though they were in public. Draco allowed it, just this once.

"Go have a baby," Draco smiled. "And come tell us the moment he's born."

Scorpius's grin was wider than the sun as he ran back to be at Rose's bedside, leaving his parents in the waiting room, practically bubbling with anticipation.

It was five in the morning when Scorpius returned to the waiting room, obviously groggy but grinning like a maniac.

His sleep deprived parents looked at him beseechingly, hoping beyond hope that the wait was over.

Scorpius nodded and Astoria crushed him soundly, demanding that he take them to see the baby this. Instant. The door of the delivery room creaked shut behind them as they made their way to the bed.

Rose looked, for lack of a better word, awful. Her eyes had deep, dark bags beneath them and her hair, which was usually tamed with Sleekeazy's, was pulled atop her head in a wild and curly bundle. However, through all the exhaustion and mess, there it was- a tightly wrapped bundle held securely in its mother's arms.

"Mum, dad," Scorpius announced as he took the baby from Rose, who smiled as if she'd just won the Quidditch World Cup. "This is Cassiopeia."

"It's a girl?" Astoria asked, tears already welling in her eyes. Hermione Granger-Weasley, who had been in the room for the birth, was already in tears as she ran her hands through her daughter's messy hair, silently cursing her husband for being stuck on a mission in Ibiza.

"It's a girl," Scorpius confirmed. He looked to Draco somewhat apprehensively. "Would you like to hold her?"

Draco could only nod as he slowly accepted the sleepy little girl into his arms. His heart was beating so fast he thought it might burst through his chest as he stared at her delicate, princess-like features. A gorgeous Malfoy nose and chin, with dainty lips and a light dusting of freckles across pale cheeks that could only belong to a Weasley. He savored her new baby scent, completely unprepared for her to open her eyes and pierce him with gems that were already so very dark.

As he stood there, holding his granddaughter, he didn't care that anyone else was watching, he didn't care that he now owed Ron Weasley ten galleons because he'd been right about the baby being a girl, he didn't even care that she had a full head of the most glaringly strawberry blonde hair he'd ever seen- she was beautiful.

"Are you alright?" Astoria asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Draco realized he was crying. In front of people. For some reason, he didn't care. Draco's stone cold reputation was ruined just like that, but as Cassie wrapped her impossibly tiny hand around his finger, he found that he no longer cared about keeping up such appearances.

"I'm perfect," he replied, smiling down at the beautiful little girl once more. "Just perfect."

The End


End file.
